knapping

[AgesofDays]

what tool do you need to knapp your flint or can you use a file or something to resharpen them?

 

[musketman]

I use a small homemade brass hammer, works great for me...

Deer antler tines work too, but I like brass.

 

[roundball]

I've got a litle brass knapping hammer but it's so tiny it's hard to hold in my big mitts.

Then I noticed my solid brass, 5.5" long x 5/16" diameter, hexagon sided brass rod I used to drive out drift pins, etc in my tool chest.

The length, weight, and flat sides of it make it a perfect flint knapping tool for me...just a few quick tap, tap, tap, tap, taps and I have a razor edge again...10 seconds and absolutely effortless!

Had it for years but a simple hex sided brass rod should be available at any well equipped tool / hardware store or gunsmithing supply house

 

[tg]

When the flint is in the gun I use a brass hammer, my turn screw, the back of a knife blade, I do not knap with a primed pan and put a feather in the hole if the gun is loaded. When I rework flnts on the bench I clasp them in lead or leather and use a dulled 16 penny nail and stike it with a small hammer, with this I can take a worn 7/8 flint and sharpen/work it doen to fit a large Siler, when making gunspauls/flints from large stock I use a large brass shaft from a differential bearing of ball peen hammer for percussion and an antler tip for pressure work.

 

[2172]

Got this from either "Muzzleblasts" or "Muzzleloader" a couple of years ago. A knapping tool made from a 16p nail. The point is cut off, and then, about a half inch back, a shoulder is cut in for about half the diameter. I rest the shoulder on the edge of the flint, in the gun, and tap, gently with the ball of my short-starter, or my knife handle....I was getting less than 20 shots per flint before finding this, now get up in the 40 or 50 shot range. I've made a few of these for friends, and have lately started using the old fashioned "cut nail" masonry nail...the flat sided one? looks almost as if a blacksmith had made it.
As the earlier poster said, when I work on the flint in the gun, no priming, touch hole blocked...muzzle down range, just in case...Hank